Thursday, May 14, 2009

Again between two guys a hell of a lot smarter than you. Me and James.

Just a reminder Channelup is in Italics, James in regular font.

Yo buddy

Last night's lost was nothing if not interesting. I liked it (thought it could have been an hour and a half) and thought it did a pretty good job setting up next season. Writing about it was insanely hard as I had a lot of trouble gathering my thoughts and putting them in a coherent format. I obviously wanted to avoid just straight summarizing, but there was so much going on. Anyway I thought I would add a couple of more thoughts that didn't make it into my post.

- I kind of mention this but the good/evil thing is really going to be the main focus of the last season I think. Ben and Mystery Island guy leading the charge to keep the island secret from everyone with others (Richard Alpert maybe? Shadow of the statue group?) fighting for their own end games. That storyline has the potential to be awesome and maddening at the same time.

- The bomb explosion will probably make it so that the Oceanic crew (plus Miles and Juliette) can somehow jump back to the present and back into the fray. One thing I liked about this season with them alternating between different points in time, is that there wasnt too much overlap and confusion with the characters. Basically keeping it so that everyone easnt always running into each other worked for the production of the show. Putting them all back in to the same time, with Alpert and company's increasing role, plus this new faction, could be tough.

Any other thoughts? I think I have now written 10,000 words on Lost.

Interesting idea about the bomb sending the main characters forward in time. Supporting that idea is the fact that they used the exact same screen effect when we are meant to believe the bomb goes off as when we have traveled in time previously.

So this foil to Jacob doesn't actually resurrect Locke - but turns himself into an image of Locke? So are we meant to believe this guy also turned himself into a vision of Jack's Dad, Walt, etc? Even though it's bizarre, I suppose it's at least a consistent explanation.

I am not sure if I like the idea of the island being this place where two gods are battling for supremacy. I also don't get why Jacob would just let Ben wave that knife around and then kill him(if he is indeed dead) considering he earlier exercised the power to bring a human being back to life when Locke was thrown from the window. And to be honest, I also thought the "Jacob was actually there at all of these huge moments in all of the Losties lives" got extremely old after the first couple. The first one I was like WHOA!!! and then after that it sort of felt like cheap thrills. Jacob sitting on a bench...Locke falls from the window! Can you believe it?! Jacob was there when Locke was thrown out of the window, too! So I guess what I am saying is, I agree that the episode stands up a lot better as an hour and a half instead of 2 hours. This is sort of a shame considering I felt like some of the other huge plot points were sort of rushed.

We need to see Jacob at Sun and Jin's wedding, but all we get for the most pivotal turning point is the episode is Juliet saying "I changed my mind. I saw the way you looked at her," and a weak explanation? Juliet similarly instantly changes her mind in the sub to get them back to the island...I guess she didn't see any suspicious looks by Sawyer in any of the other dozens of times he and Kate interracted since she got back? I just thought this was a very hurried and sloppy way to make sure everyone got back on the island while also letting Jack's plan carry on. It felt like forced drama, which LOST has done a good job avoiding this season. Easier would have just been to not place Sawyer, Juliet, and Kate on the sub...avoid some empty action scenes of their escape, Sawyer and Jack's fight, the "Why'd you stop," "That's why dude," Hurley and Jack moment, and so on.

Why couldn't Juliet have given her "i saw the way you looked at her" speech when Sawyer first suggests going on the sub in the first place? We are still in the same place, but we have room for further development elsewhere. Would it have been so bad if we saw MIles saying to his father, "Now I understand why you did it," and then playing a bigger role in all of this instead of just having this awesome character making snarky comments in the background from time to time? Perhaps another interraction between Jacob and Evil Jacob at some other point in time(like when Oceanic 815 crashes). My overall point is, as I am sure you can tell by now - a few storylines left me wanting more and a few left me wanting decidedly less. I think either trimming it down, or re-organizing it while dropping the fluff would have been a far more impactful finale. I do agree though, that the events that happened set us up well for next season.

Totally agree about the Jacob appearances. I thought some were cool (Sawyer, Sayid, Locke) and some were stupid (Jin and Sun, Jack). Also they kind of throw you off with Juliet's parents getting divorced and Jacob not showing up. When he doesnt show it kind of makes the whole thing some weird set up for why she leaves Sawyer. To be honest, the whole Sawyer, Kate Juilet thing has annoyed me for a while and I find it very hollow. What I did enjoy about Sawyer though was the genuine anguish (not for losing Juliet), but for losing the life he had in the Dharma Initiative. He was kind of saying, "I finally made a normal life for myself and you (Jack) came along and f-ed it up like you always do." That is where I felt most pity for him as a character.

Also the scene where they are about to explode the bomb was beyond ridiculous considering an alarm is going off, the Dharma initiative is on to them, Sayid is dying and every sits around to talk about their feelings for ten minutes. No possible way.

Agree totally about the sub and its uselessness in the overall plot. Just a filler. I doubt Jacob is actually dead and we need to consider that his body is most likely just some kind of vessel to a more supreme being. I don't know if I love these God implications because they complicate things almost more than time travel does. People with God-like powers (Sylar) are just as impossible as those who try and change the future or past.